Private home prices rose by less than 1% in December compared with the previous month, according to the latest National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore Residential Price Index.
The Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI) for all properties increased 0.9% month on month to 155.5 points. Suburban home prices grew the most, with month-on-month growth coming in at 2.2% to reach 154.8.
However, homes prices in the central region fell 0.8% month on month. But for the whole year, prices of completed homes increased by 11.9%, the figures also show.
The SRPI is a reliable transactions based index that tracks the month on month price movements of private non landed residential properties in Singapore compiled by the NUS Institute of Real Estate Studies.
Despite a year of price increases, analysts say demand in the secondary residential market remains buoyant. They say a healthy resale market is evidence of strong owner occupier demand, considered by experts to be a barometer of genuine buying interest.
‘It reflects the mood of the real market and the real economy, the secondary market, in other words. It is less speculative, unlike new launches,’ said Chua Yang Liang, Head of Research South-east Asia, Jones Lang LaSalle.
Looking ahead, almost half of the estimated 8,430 new private homes that are expected to be completed in 2011 will be in the upmarket core central region, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
The URA has been surveying developers more closely over the last few months in a bid to compile more accurate pipeline supply figures. ‘The increase from the third quarter of 2010′s forecast for 2011 completions to the fourth quarter 2010′s forecast is a significant 25%. Over the next few quarters, we expect to see further upward revisions,’ said Ku Swee Yong, chief executive of real estate firm International Property Advisor.
Property experts expect the supply of private residential units due to be completed each year from 2011 to 2015 to be large. URA currently estimates that 8,116 units will be completed in 2012, some 17,111 units in 2013, 17,421 units in 2014 and 13,453 units in 2015.
Last year’s number of newly completed private homes, which stands at around 10,400 units, is already higher than the historical average annual increase in housing supply of around 6,400 private units over the last decade.
For 2011, a total of 3,874 homes will be added to the housing supply in the core central region, which includes the prime districts 9, 10 and 11, Marina Bay and Sentosa Cove. This will make up 46% of the island wide housing supply of 8,430 new private homes.
Another 2,265 private homes will be completed in the rest of central region, while in the outside central region, 2,291 units will be completed this year.
URA also said that as at the end of Q4 2010, there was a total supply of 65,699 uncompleted units of private housing from projects in the pipeline. Of these, 32,776 units were still unsold.
